5 Years
by Haruka Black
Summary: Draco made a promise to Harry, but time is running out and Draco can't keep things up much longer. SLASH DM/HP
1. Chapter 1

Draco felt the scream well up in his chest. He felt as the ever-present spark in the back of his mind died, extinguishing faster than his heart had time to beat. The pain was more intense than anything he had ever felt before, worse that the sectumsempra that had practically cut him in half, worse even than the torture of receiving the Dark Mark.

It was as if someone was simultaneously cutting his heart apart with the finest scalpel, sliver by sliver, while sewing it back together with a thick rusty needle. Every inch of his skin felt like it was on fire, yet he felt colder than if he had been dipped into a pool of ice. Every single fiber in his body cried out in anguish and for release from the pain.

A heaving wrenching sob tore though his lungs as he fought for the air that refused to enter his burning lungs, he felt like he was drowning out of water.

'Harry is dead,' the thought momentarily flickered though his pain clouded mind as he finally succumbed to darkness.

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I realize this is short. It's just a prologue. Look at my profile for more info on the story if you like it.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry felt the familiar tug of a portkey release his navel as he landed in a heap in the dirt. He groaned pushing his face off the ground, spitting out leaves and dirt out of his mouth, as he blindly grabbed for his glasses. He found them carefully putting them on, glad that they hadn't broken, as he looked around in confusion.

All around him, as far as he could see in any direction, were ferns closely growing together and enormous trees with trunks several yards around that reached farther into the sky higher than any building Harry had ever seen except for maybe Hogwarts herself. There was nothing around that clued him into where he was though.

Sighing he reached for his wand and realized with horror that he didn't have a wand anymore. It had been destroyed when his link with Voldemort had been destroyed. Both of their wands had dissolved into nothingness when Harry had finally killed the dark lord. Now he was safe from Voldemort's wrath, but stuck in the middle of a forest with no wand, no way to apparate, or cast a patronous to send a message or even perform a simple point-me spell.

He grimaced while looking at the trees. The trunks were too wide to get a good grip on to climb and there weren't any branches until several stories up. There was no way he would be able to climb them and see where he should go. The height of the branches also hindered him by blocking his view of the sun making it impossible to tell whether it was rising or setting or in what direction.

He turned a slow circle trying to determine if there was any path or trail he could follow but there was solid plant life on all sides of him. Each direction looked practically the same as what was next to it on top of the lack of noticeable path.

Biting his lip, Harry randomly picked a direction. He had already been gone for five days and any longer Draco would start to suffer the side effects of the separation from him, not to mention that he was more than a little worn out himself.

Walking though the forest wasn't exactly easy with how close the plants, mainly ferns, were packed together, but there were small animal trails that he could follow that helped him to navigate around some of the larger foliage. Most of the plants that he did have to push past let him by fairly easily. There was one fern that sliced his arm open when he tried to walk through it electing a sharp yelp as he pulled the sharp grabby plant away from arm. Luckily though most plants didn't have the same violent defenses.

One plant he had recognized while trudging though the forest was a large amount of Stinging Nettle. He had already almost walked into a large plant and the cut from the sword like fern was already itching and irritated and he didn't want to deal with more pricks and itching from the large spiny plant.

There were very few animals around that he was worried about meeting, most forest dwelling creatures that were big enough to cause him any kinds of problems were nocturnal and as long as he had found some kind of shelter by then he would be fine. The only thing creatures that he worried about for a second were bears, and wolves. If wolves found him there wouldn't be anything he could do and it was in the middle of winter so he severely doubted that any bears would be wandering around, even if it was warmer than usual for a winter day.

Harry walked through the forest for what he gauged had been an hour since he had first started walking, when he heard rustling ahead of him. He moved warily. His first thoughts of it being a person were shot down instantly when he heard a large growl and a bear come into view. Any hopes that a bear would be hibernating right now were shot down as his luck failed him again.

The bear roar and took a step towards him, growling angrily. Harry took froze for only a second before he spun on his heels and crashed through the underbrush disregarding the ferns that were cutting at his arms and pulling at his robs. He didn't stop until he tripped over one of the enormous tree roots that and worked it way out of the dirt stopped him in his tracks.

He sprawled onto the ground the breath instantly knocked out of him. Gasping for the air that his lungs were denying him, he tried to scramble up and only succeeded in tripping over another sneaky tree root. Breathing heavily on the ground he realized with relief that the bear wasn't chasing him. It probably hadn't been chasing him to begin with he realized, remembering the smaller mound of brown that had been a the bears feet.

The bear had been protecting its cub, Harry realized as he pulled himself up from the ground tenderly, wincing as the dirt and forest floor he brushed off his arms rubbed into his new cuts and scrapes. That was not something that he had been expecting. Winter was not the time for cubs of any kind let alone bear. Something prickly uneasily at the back of his neck as he looked backwards from where he had run.

There wasn't anything he could do though. He know had a bigger problem. He had no idea which direction he had been originally traveling. The only way that he could make sure that he wasn't double back on himself would be to double back to where he had met the bear and his common sense told him not to test fate more than he needed to. With his luck there would be a pack of wolves there now too. Sighing he looked around and noticed with interest that in one direction the foliage seemed to be thinner or at least not as difficult to navigate around as it had been up until this point.

His elation at trudging through slightly less dense foliage was short lived when he realized that the sun was no longer as high as it had been when he had landed in the forest and that a setting sun meant that he would have even less time before he had to look for some kind of shelter for the night, if he couldn't find some kind of civilization soon. Biting back worry he pressed on determined to go for as long as possible before the sun gave out on him.

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Another short chapter, sorry. They do get longer the farther into the story we go, I promise. I realize there are some things that may seem weird or not possible season wise, but believe me they'll make more sense farther into the fic. Read and Review please!


	3. Chapter 3

Draco laid in bed staring blearily up at the dark ceiling. The last five years had not been easy on him. He had all but given up talking care of his personal appearance which he had once taken so much pride in. His hair was lank and dull in need of a haircut badly. The skin around his eyes looked permanently bruised, his eye sockets were much too shallow. His once pale light skin was grayish and clung to his frame too tightly.

He knew he should be getting up but his body felt tired and his heart labored much harder than it should after only 26 years of life. It felt like there was a constant weight on his heart both holding him down yet somehow keeping him alive at the same time. A bitter reminder of what he had lost and what wasn't coming back to him. The one person that he wished he could see and knew that he would never be able to see or hear or touch again.

Tears threatened to fall prickling at the corners of his eyes. Years without his mate, without Harry had wreaked hell on him. The longing in his heart had dulled him to the rest of his world. He should have died four years ago, when Harry had died. When their bond had been broken, snapped like a piece of brittle clay. Unraveled as easily and roughly as a cat playing with a ball of yarn, leaving Draco to try and untangle the knots and kinks by himself.

Something wouldn't let him die though. At first he had though he was pregnant. He wouldn't have been able to die if he had been with child. But it had been confirmed by numerous medi-wizards and witches that he carried no child. Part of him hoped that it was because Harry was still alive, that he wasn't able to end his life. But he knew deep down what the real reason was, something that Harry had forced him to promise and something that Draco cursed every day. He had promised that he wouldn't kill himself, even if Harry himself died.

Draco had honestly believed Harry when he said he would never leave him. That they could be separated like so many of the couples around them had hardly even crossed their minds. The two of them had been younger, in love, and, while it would be impossible to ignore what was going on around them, much too eager to believe they both had a shot at making it through the war. The regret of that promise coupled with Harry betrayal and death had left Draco nearly insane with grief and longing for months.

That night when he had felt his soul rip in two, leaving him feeling shattered and broken, had plagued his dreams since, rarely letting up. When he did have the occasional good dream about Harry it ended in frustration and tears. Nothing could equal the real sensation of having Harry in bed with him, holding him closely, pressing a soft kiss to his lips as they both reveled in simply being with each other. No dream could ever compete with the real thing.

Without Harry though life hadn't been easy. For the first few months he had been easily distracted and falling into trance like daydreams at ill opportune times, which posed a danger to anyone that was around him if was doing something that required concentration. He had spilled tea on himself more times that he could count, caught his clothing on fire numerous times and even fallen down a flight of stairs.

Luckily for his sake, Hermione had been willing to help him. While she didn't know what it was like to lose a mate as both her and Ron had survived, she had lost one of her best friends on the night that Harry had died. The bushy haired girl had been more than adamant in making sure that Draco got back on with his life as much as he could, even though the both of them knew that wasn't much. She had been there to make sure that he got out of bed, stayed relatively clean, and eat-especially since any appetite that the veela had, had died when Harry did.

A sudden knocking on his bedroom door brought him out of his musings.

"Draco?" Came the female voice from behind the door. "I'm coming in there."

A bushy head, that the blonde could barely make out in the dimly light, stuck itself into Draco's room.

"Still in bed at this hour?" Hermione's gently chiding voice said. "It's almost nine-o-clock"

She walked across the room making for the window and Draco quickly dragged the blankets over his head as Hermione pulled the curtains open smartly, sending bright sunlight racing around the room.

"Hermione!!" Draco moaned from under the covers.

"Don't you 'Hermione' me Draco Malfoy. You get your blonde head out of bed now or I'm going to start your shower right here in the room." Hermione said in a no-nonsense tone. She was grinning the whole time though as she looked at the pile of blankets that Draco was hidden under.

Squinting his eye's Draco slowly pulled the covers down over his head and stared half blinded at the dark shape of Hermione towering over him. Blinking owlishly, he rubbed his eye's and sat up still feeling drowsy.

"C'mon I've already got the water warmed up in the bathroom. Go take your shower and I'll be downstairs; I brought breakfast with me." She said brightly as she strolled out of the room.

Grumbling, Draco followed after her, almost becoming tangled in his bedsheets for a moment before half hopping and haft stumbling out of the trap that had entangled his leg. He glared menacingly at the sheet for a moment before wearily walking down the hall to where he could hear the sound of a shower already running.

True to her work Hermione had already warmed up the water for him and while the warm stream didn't exactly wake him up, he did feel a slight bit better. His head didn't feel so clouded and heavy at the very least, and the methodical motion of washing helped to keep his mind off the person he missed so much.

Sighing he finally turned off the water, instantly regretting the loss of warmth the shower had given him and pulled a large fluffy towel around his waist. Back in his bedroom he found that Hermione had rummaged through his drawers and pulled him out an appropriate outfit for work, at the very least, all the articles of clothing matched something that Draco often didn't realize until he was about to leave the apartment.

Downstairs he found Hermione sitting at his dinning table with a large mug of tea in her hand and a small pile of pastries in front of her.

"Tea or Coffee?" She asked holding out a mug for him as he sat down.

Draco blinked at her for moment, as if he was unsure of the answer, long enough for Hermione to swallow down a hard breath and fill his mug with Coffee.

"You probably want the extra boost today," She said trying to keep her voice neutral.

Draco's eye's were downcast as he finally took the mug from her and slowly swirled in some sugar, swallowing a lump that hard formed in his throat that had formed when he realized he had zoned out again.

"Paper?" Hermione asked her voice trying to be cheerful as she worked hard to keep the worry out of her eye's when she looked at the veela sitting across the table from her.

Mutely Draco reached across the table from her to grab the paper. His eyes instantly locked onto the date as his heart leaped even higher into his throat. Only four more days.

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I realize I'm a bad person for not having this up last weekend. I lack motivation in life what can I say. For anyone who care's to know this fic is planned to be 6 chapters in length with a possible prologue a the end.

Feel free to tell me if you find any errors. I appreciate it.


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